The winner of the Hugo van Poelgeest Award has been announced! Niels Harlaar can now call himself the scientist of the future. Through his development of new human heart models, laboratory animals can be replaced in heart research. On Friday, November the 18th, he accepted the award during our event Toekomstproef<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> The Hugo van Poelgeest Award is the oldest Dutch award for animal-free research<\/strong>. With the award we want to support young scientists in their animal-free research and motivate future scientists to follow their example. Niels Harlaar won this prize in 2022. He is a researcher and studying to become a physician at the LUMC. He received a grant from the LUMC for outstanding students to do PhD research alongside his medical studies. Niels is working on the development of new human heart models to replace laboratory animals in heart disease research. He developed an inexhaustible source of <\/span>human heart muscle cells<\/span><\/a>. This enabled him to more accurately mimic atrial fibrillation – the most common cardiac arrhythmia – in the laboratory, than by using laboratory animal models. During the Toekomstproef event in Beeld & Geluid Den Haag, together with Stichting Bouwstenen voor Dierenwelzijn<\/a> we awarded him with \u20ac3,000 so he can continue his animal-free research.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>About the winner<\/h2>\n
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